Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190

www.elsevier.com/locate/aos

The fragmented communication structure

within the accounting academia: the case of
activity-based costing research genres
Kari Lukka *, Markus Granlund
Turku School of Economics and Business Administration, Department of Accounting and Finance, Rehtorinpellonkatu 3,
FIN-20500 Turku, Finland

Abstract
The major purpose of this study is to examine the communication structures within the management accounting
academia, with a view to illustrating and thereby possibly alleviating the diculties of dialogue between the di€erent
discussion circles identi®able within the ®eld. Research on activity-based costing (ABC) is used as an illustrating
example case. We distinguish three genres of ABC research (Consulting research, Basic research, and Critical research)
and analyse their nature as well as their internal and external communication patterns. We are particularly interested in
the interests of knowledge, research methods, argumentation styles, and results of these genres. Also, we will pay
attention to their e€ects both on the progress of science and management accounting practice. The theoretical points of
support lean on the ideas of Bourdieu, Gadamer, Habermas, Latour, and StegmuÈller. Overall, the ®eld of ABC
research appears to be fragmented. Our analysis suggests that the current communication pattern between various
research genres is not inclined to enhance the accumulation of accounting knowledge. Applying the ideas of StegmuÈller
(1969), we conclude that the discussion circles within the accounting academia appear to be estranged to an extent to
which the arguments of researchers representing di€erent approaches do not frequently meet each other, resulting in
the unfruitful development of knowledge. # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction communication? If there are, what are they like?

How does communication within the research
publications of management accounting acade-
mia work? What are the relevant parties of that
communication and what are their characteristic
features? Are there problems in the communica-
tion patterns amongst the various parties of that
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +358-2-3383315; fax: +358-
2-3383350.
E-mail address: kari.lukka@tukkk.® (K. Lukka).
0361-3682/01/$ - see front matter # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0361-3682(00)00037-4
These kinds of questions represent the starting
points of our journey through recent management
accounting research literature. On a very general
level, the purpose of this paper is to enhance our
understanding of the way our international scien-
ti®c community works. This paper contributes to
the sociology of science type of literature in
accounting, which has recently emerged in the
agenda of accounting theory (e.g. Lee, 1995;
Lukka & Kasanen, 1996; Panozzo, 1997; Williams
& Rogers, 1995).
166 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
Management accounting has changed tre-
mendously during the last 10 years or so. The
provocative book ``Relevance Lost: The Rise and
Fall of Management Accounting,'' published by
Johnson and Kaplan (1987) Ð basically a kind of
critical review of the history of management
accounting Ð has been in the focus of this devel-
opment, as well as the discussions linked with it.
The changes we refer to have become realised in a
number of ways, including new management
accounting techniques and varieties of EDP-based
accounting systems, new organisational arrange-
ments for accounting, and new ideas about the role
management accountants can play in organisations
(e.g. Bromwich & Bhimani, 1994; Lukka & Shields,
1999). During the last 10±15 years, an entirely new
literature of cost management has emerged, the
bulk of which deals with activity-based costing
(ABC). This paper examines the characteristic
features of this literature, focusing on the com-
munication structures within the ABC research.
1.1. Purpose and methodology
This study deals with the sociology of science.
Its major purpose is to examine the communica-
tion structures within the management accounting
academia, with a view to illustrating and thereby
possibly alleviating the potential diculties of
dialogue amongst the various discussion circles
distinguishable in the ®eld. Following Gadamer
(1975), the study is based on the belief that e€ec-
tively working communication patterns between
the various discussion circles of management
accounting research would be a positive driving
force in regard to the development of knowledge
with respect to the ®eld (theoretical knowledge
and knowledge of accounting practice). Research
on ABC is used as an illustrative example case, i.e.
this paper is not meant to present a literature
review.
People in a certain discussion circle are con-
nected by common world-views, values and
approaches to doing research, and they speak a
language understandable to each other. Borrowing
from the terminology of ®ne arts, the products of
people in various discussion circles tend to form
di€erent genres: in this case, literary products
concerning ABC of a di€erent kind or style.1 We
will distinguish genres of ABC research and
thereafter analyse their nature as well as their
internal and external communication patterns. We
are particularly interested in the interests of knowl-
edge, research methods, argumentation styles, and
the nature of results of these genres. Also, we will
pay attention to their e€ects both on the progress
of science and management accounting practice.
Our primary database is the entire literature on
ABC from the 1980s and 1990s, including a num-
ber of empirical studies and a wide literature of
commentary and prescriptive type. In addition to
literary sources, our network of arguments also
leans on anecdotal evidence, i.e. on oral interac-
tion having taken place, e.g. in conferences and
workshops. We have intentionally relegated text-
books outside our analysis, because they do not
represent research as such: they do not develop or
analyse phenomena, but only act as distributors of
existing knowledge on a pedagogic basis.
1.2. Starting points
The sociology of science approach has not been
widely applied in accounting research. However, a
few studies have recently examined the structure and
nature of accounting research society, particularly
from the viewpoint of publication activity (e.g. Lee,
1995; Williams & Rogers, 1995; Lukka & Kasanen,
1996). Studies of this type are typically informed by
the ideas of French social theorist Pierre Bourdieu.
According to Bourdieu (1990) academic disciplines
tend to have fragmented social structures, in which
one can distinguish eÂlites dominating the ®eld by
various methods. Bourdieu's theory is a potentially
useful starting point in this study as well. The ability
to distinguish di€erent genres means that the ®eld in
question is fragmented.
Borrowing from the philosophical literature, a
potentially fruitful typology of describing the level
of fragmentation of the dialogue patterns within a
discipline is that presented by Wolfgang StegmuÈller
1
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
(1992), the notion of genre refers to a particular style or kind,
especially with respect to works of art of literature, grouped
according to their form or subject matter: e.g. the novel and
short story are of di€erent genres. See also, e.g. Geertz (1980).
 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
(1969). His typology distinguishes four levels of
alienation between philosophers' points of view:
(1) philosophers are of a di€erent opinion con-
cerning certain common problems Ð this is still a
transient phenomenon, since the dialogue works
and the disagreement deals only with the strength
of the parties' justi®cations; (2) the dialogue
between philosophers breaks down, since there is
no rational way through which a common conclu-
sion can be reached Ð the parties speak past each
other; (3) the common basis for communication
collapses, and even though the parties may still
consider that they possess a shared overall goal,
they feel that they do not comprehend each others'
speech; and (4) the peak of alienation is reached;
philosophers of di€erent camps neither understand
each other's speech nor arguments, and they may
even lack a common goal to go after. Since there
appears to be no reason why this typology could
not be applied to any scienti®c ®eld, we will make
an attempt to use it as one of our interpretation
bases in our analysis of the communication pat-
terns within the accounting academia.
On the other hand, Hans-Georg Gadamer, a
critically hermeneutic social theorist, emphasises
the importance of dialogue in science as well as in
life overall. According to Gadamer (1975), it is
dialogue precisely which can enhance common
understanding in science. In case dialogue is lack-
ing, the ideas of scientists will not encounter each
other, and a barrier against common understanding
is created. Dialogue is above all a reciprocal activity
by nature. Accordingly, a true dialogue is not pri-
marily an attempt to persuade the other party to
accept and adopt one's own viewpoint or argument.
Dialogue is rather about reaching a situation in
which the parties respect each other's viewpoints
and enrich their own thinking by that means. In a
fruitful situation, the parties of a dialogue are
therefore willing to gain familiarity also with such
ideas which they obviously cannot support. Com-
munication between di€erent genres of ABC lit-
erature could be analysed on the basis of
Gadamer's notion of a fruitful dialogue. Do the
di€erent genres have a dialogue across the genre
borders? If they have, in what way does it occur?
In his modern classic in critical theory, JuÈr-
gen Habermas (1971) analysed thoroughly the
167
connection between knowledge and human inter-
ests. His aim was obviously two-fold. Firstly, his
work is a criticism of the limited view of science,
which the dominance of modernity and positivism
has brought about. Secondly, though he attempted
to extend the scope of standard scienti®c epistemol-
ogy, he also wanted to de®ne and rescue science as
the human practice in which the comprehensive
rationality of reason plays a signi®cant role. Haber-
mas was thus factually attempting to establish
tougher epistemological standards (e.g. Pusey, 1987).
For Habermas, scienti®c knowledge obtains its
fundamental meaning through the rational rea-
sons for which it is developed. It is these reasons
he terms the `interests of knowledge.' Technical
interest, Habermas argues, dominates in the nat-
ural sciences. This implies that natural sciences are
meaningful and their results are valuable precisely
because they make it possible to forecast and
control the events of reality. On the other hand, if
the development of knowledge is based on prac-
tical interest, the purpose of scienti®c endeavour is
to profoundly understand cultural phenomena
and to enhance our ability for self-re¯ection
through communication. History is a typical
example of a discipline in which practical interest
rules. The third possibility for Habermas is the
emancipatory interest, referring to the develop-
ment of knowledge driven by the aim to gain a
consciousness about the distorted communication
patterns and illegitimate modes of repression of a
society as well as by the attempt to dissolve them.
The adoption of the emancipatory interest, typical
of critical social analysis, tends to lead to criticism
towards predominant ideologies. In addition to
these three interests of knowledge de®ned by
Habermas (1971), one could argue that there is
room for one additional option. According to
Niiniluoto (1980), we should also distinguish the
theoretical interest of knowledge Ð according to
which the development of knowledge serves the
accomplishment of a systematic and comprehen-
sive description and explanation of reality Ð
without the purpose of forecasting and control.
Another potentially useful idea for us, related to
the theory of interests of Habermas, is that of
Bruno Latour. In his book ``Science in Action''
(1987), Latour carefully and profoundly describes
168 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
the ways academic studies ``really'' get done and
how their message becomes Ð or in certain cases
does not become Ð spread among the members of
the discipline in question. For Latour, science is
not only intellectual but also a fundamentally
political activity. He argues that it is rather
idealistic Ð if not downright romantic Ð to
believe that scienti®c products would have certain
objective values which would determine their
acceptance and adoption rate among fellow scien-
tists. He claims, rather, that what is at the least
equally important is the strategic behaviour of the
speci®c scientist, for instance his or her ability to
gain active or passive allies, having a positive atti-
tude towards his or her results. The worst out-
come for a researcher's ®ndings is, of course, that
nobody pays any attention to them Ð that
nobody cares. The knowledgeable selection of a
genre when preparing and reporting a scienti®c
study can be seen as one of the ways to seek a
useful selection of allies.
In this paper, the ideas of these ®ve philosophers
and social theorists form the basis for our analysis
and interpretation. The ideas of Bourdieu, Gada-
mer and StegmuÈller are related as they focus on
fragmented social structures as well as on the
importance and diculties of interaction across
their boundaries. On the other hand, the ideas of
Habermas and Latour link together in their aim to
describe and analyse the interested and political
nature of academic knowledge creation processes.
1.3. Genres of ABC literature
Since our purpose is to examine the develop-
ment of knowledge in the accounting academia,
we thought it useful to ®rst outline the entire pro-
cess of such a development in the selected exemp-
lary ®eld, which is ABC research literature (cf.
Kaplan, 1998). The start of the process is to hit the
core idea from somewhere, initialise its develop-
ment, construct pilot versions of it, and try to sell
the new theory/construction to relevant audiences.
In case of managerial theories/constructions (such
as ABC), this primary phase leads to initial real-
world implementations. The second phase includes
further analysis of the new theory/construction
(e.g. of its organisational implications), in order to
profoundly describe, understand, and explain it.
In the third phase, sooner or later, the new theory/
construction tends to be seen as an adequate tar-
get for more fundamental evaluation, in which it is
put into a wider organisational and social context
in order to deconstruct and criticise the core
values it re¯ects and the ends it truly promotes.
Having this process in mind, we argue Ð based
on an extensive review of the ABC literature pub-
lished to date Ð that there are three genres that
emerge from it: Consulting research, Basic research
and Critical research. The typical features of con-
sulting research Ð located at the initial phase of the
process outlined above Ð are strong practicability,
occasional empirical evidence of the case-study
type, and a prescriptive and propagating style
overall. The key characteristic and intention in the
writings of this genre is to sell the author's ideas
concerning ABC to the readers of the journal. The
source of those ideas is often an ABC development
and implementation process in which the author
has participated. One should note that the label
``consulting research'' is not meant to infer that
the authors of the texts of this genre would be
consultants only. Given that the key features of
this genre are extant, the authors can in principle
be anybody, ranging from consultants to practi-
tioners to academics.
Naturally, the scienti®c status of texts represent-
ing consulting research can, as discussed in more
detail below, be questioned. However, we decided
to also include the genre of consulting research into
our analysis, since texts of that genre are, in any
event, an integral part of the network in which the
more clearly academic writings are operative.
Typical of basic research2 is an analysis ex post
facto, i.e. analysis after the examined event or phe-
nomenon has already occurred, or has been con-
structed. In this genre, ABC is a ``given''
phenomenon in the actual ®eld of practice, serving
as a target for analysis. Studies of this genre typi-
cally derive from the second phase of the knowl-
edge development process outlined above. In the
context of ABC, basic research analyses the nature,
2
Contrary to the oft-used dichotomy of basic research vs.
applied research, we are willing to use the notion ``basic
research'' here in a wider sense, covering both of them.
 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
functioning, e€ects and di€usion of ABC. The
authors of basic research attempt to keep a neutral
position, though they may implicitly have a some-
what positive attitude towards ABC. They do not
try to sell the ideas around ABC, but they do not
tend to fundamentally criticise them either. Typical
modes of basic research include a conceptual analy-
sis and clari®cation of ABC notions, the mathema-
tical analysis of interrelationships of ABC systems,
an analysis of practical ABC solutions based on
case-studies and surveys, and the examination of the
speed and width of ABC di€usion in practice. The
genre of basic research is methodologically diverse,
and it can be divided into several sub-genres. In our
analysis of this genre, we applied the following sub-
genre categorisation, based on distinctive research
methods: conceptual research, mathematical mod-
elling, statistical studies and case studies.
The genre of critical research can be viewed as
counter-balancing the often eulogistic attitude
visible in consulting research. Studies representing
this genre are typically conducted in the third
phase of the knowledge development process out-
lined at the beginning of this section. Formally,
the starting point of critical research may appear
to closely approximate that of Basic research:
ABC is analysed as a ``given'' phenomenon active
in the ®eld of practice. However, it should be
recognised that since critical studies aim at fur-
thering emancipation, their agenda is fundamen-
tally value-laden and committed. By criticising the
manifestations of certain ideology, they become
partisans of certain competing ones, which they
privilege (cf. Silverman, 1985; Chua, 1986). The
critics of ABC have adopted a socio-critical
approach. This explicit criticism seems to more or
less question the entire market-based value system
ruling in the business world. ABC is regarded in
this context as one of the uncritical ways to serve
and support the prevailing status quo in society.3
3
Linked to the dissemination of ABC knowledge, Bjùrnenak
and Mitchell (1999) distinguish three possible roles of the authors
in ABC literature: propagator, moderator or neutral. Re¯ecting
this categorisation against our genre classi®cation, the propa-
gator label can be clearly attached to consulting research and the
neutral one to basic research. However, what Bjùrnenak and
Mitchell appear to refer to by the `role of the moderator' can be
partly linked to basic research and partly to critical research.
169
Of course the borderlines between these three gen-
res are somewhat fuzzy. As an example, a popularised
article in a professional journal which is, however,
based on rigorously conducted academic study, is
often a marginal case on the borderline between the
genres of consulting and basic research. Still, the
question per se is not about presenting the results of a
study at two di€erent forums, but that these pre-
sentations follow totally di€erent styles.4 The three
genres mentioned above should be understood as the
three key dimensions, around which we found it
convenient to cluster pieces of ABC literature.5
Drawing on the review of ABC literature by
Bjùrnenak and Mitchell (1999), we can evaluate
the relative proportions of the di€erent genres.
Bjùrnenak and Mitchell reviewed all articles on
ABC/M6 which had appeared in a wide selection
of Anglo-American journals between 1987 and
1998.7 The data included a total of 355 articles, of
which we would include some 85% as respective to
the consulting research genre, most of the rest
belonging to the basic research genre. Due to dif-
ferences in the approach adopted by Bjùrnenak
and Mitchell and this study, the evaluation of the
proportion of studies belonging to the Critical
4
Note that Bjùrnenak and Mitchell's (1999) statistical review
results reveal that while academics in general appear to be less
positive towards ABC than consultants and practitioners, aca-
demics adopt, in most cases, a propagator role when they write
to journals in which the consulting research genre is typically
present. This is to further justify our focus on styles in our genre
categorisation, rather than on authorship, for instance. So, the
same persons may adopt di€erent roles as they try to contribute
to the development of ABC knowledge within di€erent genres.
5
It is worth pointing out that the di€erent interests of
knowledge by Habermas did not form the distinction criteria
for our genre categorisation.
6
ABM refers to activity-based management, see below.
7
The journals used in their data collection were: Management
Accounting (UK), Management Accounting (US), Journal of Cost
Management, Accountancy, Journal of Accountancy, Management
Accounting Research, Journal of Management Accounting
Research, Accounting and Business Research, Accounting, Organi-
zations and Society, British Accounting Review, Journal of Business
Finance and Accounting, Accounting Horizons, Review of Account-
ing Studies, Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research
and Journal of Accounting and Economics. In our analysis, we also
examined The European Accounting Review, Harvard Business
Review, and a large number of papers presented in conferences and
workshops.
170 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
research genre appears problematic. In our analy-
sis, we felt it important to also include, in ABC
research, studies which have analysed the founda-
tions of ABC (e.g. book by Johnson & Kaplan,
1987). By only looking for the label ``ABC'' in
titles or abstracts of studies, we would have missed
the clearly existent (but relatively seldom pub-
lished) genre of critical research. The volume of
the critical research genre is nevertheless obviously
marginal by reference to the total mass of ABC
publications.
The paper will now proceed as follows. In the
next three sections we will describe and analyse in
detail the three genres of ABC literature, guided
by the research tasks presented above. Each genre
will be evaluated in regard to the adopted interests
of knowledge, methods applied, styles of argu-
mentation and the nature of results they have
produced. In these three sections we will also
examine their internal (within the genre) and
external (between genres) communication pat-
terns. In the discussion section, the preceding
analysis of ABC literature is re¯ected against our
theoretical starting points. We will also ponder
what could be the more general message emerging
from this analysis on management accounting
academia overall. In the concluding section, the
major ®ndings of the study will be summarised.
2. The genre of consulting research
2.1. A chronological outline
The numerically largest cluster in ABC literature
is formed by rather short articles, published in
primarily professionally oriented journals such as
Accountancy, Harvard Business Review, Journal
of Cost Management8, Management Accounting
(London) and Management Accounting (New
York). A large proportion of ABC articles have
been published in the last two mentioned journals,
and they have been almost exclusively of the con-
sulting type.
8 man (1985); Howell and Soucy (1987); McNair, Mosconi and
The ®rst volumes of this journal were released under the title
Journal of Cost Management for the Manufacturing Industry.
The articles representing the genre of consulting
research can be considered of primary importance
as regards the entire existence of ABC literature.
When describing and commenting on the early
versions of ABC and later the development of
ABC doctrine as well as the increasing number of
implementation e€orts, the authors of these arti-
cles have often worked close to the practical rea-
lisations of ABC. It can be argued that without the
input of this genre, the other groups of ABC lit-
erature might have had very little or even nothing
to elaborate. In the 1990s, ABC has been a very
popular topic in executive seminars and training
sessions as well as a hot topic in management
consulting practice.
Probably the most signi®cant producers of con-
sulting research on ABC are Robert S. Kaplan
and Robin Cooper. The articles by Kaplan during
the early 1980s (Kaplan, 1983, 1984a,b, 1985),
though not directly dealing with ABC, can be
viewed as clearing the path for the actual ABC
papers to come9. In those articles, Kaplan argued
that both management accounting thinking and
related methods had become obsolete and irrele-
vant within modern production environments, and
mentioned biased product costs as one of the areas
of obsolescence.
The culmination of Kaplan's production of the
1980s was his book ``Relevance Lost'' (Johnson &
Kaplan, 1987), completed jointly with H. Thomas
Johnson, in which the authors present a history of
management accounting which stresses the evident
stoppage of development circa 1925 and attempt
to explain the same. The book can also be seen as
a further developed and combined version of the
afore-mentioned articles from the early 1980s by
Kaplan. The book aroused great immediate
attention after it was published and elicited vigor-
ous academic discussion both for and against their
arguments.10 The years following the publication
9
However, Kaplan's article in The Accounting Review (1983)
represents a case at the margin, encompassing features of both
consulting and basic research.
10
About the same time, others also started to develop an
interest in the challenges caused by the changing production
environment on management accounting, e.g. Miller and Voll-
Norris (1988) and Berliner and Brimson (1988).
 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
of the book showed that a number of people act-
ing in the ®eld of management accounting, both in
practice and in the academia, have bought its
central obsolescence argument, and started to
redirect their activities accordingly.
Towards the end of the 1980s, the consulting
research texts on management accounting began
to increasingly focus on the claimed biases and
dysfunctional consequences of traditional product
costing systems as well as on their redesign-based
needs. During this period, Robin Cooper took the
leading role in this genre of ABC literature. The
rhetoric of his short article on the typical symp-
toms and reasons of biased product cost informa-
tion (Cooper, 1987) was e€ective, and no doubt
started evaluative processes among several man-
agement accountants and other managers. In their
article published in April 1988, Cooper and
Kaplan presented both severe criticism against
traditional costing systems and a solution model,
which they called ``transaction costing'' (Cooper &
Kaplan, 1988a). Later the same year, they laun-
ched the notion of ABC in their article published
in Harvard Business Review (Cooper & Kaplan,
1988b). The source of their ideas concerning ABC
was their close interaction with certain innovative
companies such as John Deere, Scovill Corpora-
tion, Hewlett-Packard and Siemens (Kaplan,
1998), in which essentially identical costing systems
had been developed and implemented at the time.
This set o€ a period of enthusiastic launching of
the ABC idea. In retrospect, it appears as if a
number of people had initiated a simultaneous
intentional marketing campaign in order to,
®rstly, demonstrate the fundamental problems of
traditional product costing systems as claimed,
and then to o€er the model of ABC as a solution
to those problems. The genre of consulting
research played a key role in this marketing e€ort.
In practice, this meant that ABC was quite rapidly
made into a product Ð something that could be
easily sold by the consulting bureaus to their client
®rms. In this marketing e€ort, the series of four
articles published in the Journal of Cost Manage-
ment by Robin Cooper (1988a,b, 1989a,b), played
a signi®cant role. Anybody could get an idea what
ABC was all about through the aid of those easy-
to-read, practical contributions.
171
In the 1990s, the number of consulting research
writings, as well as the number of authors in this
genre, further increased. Compared to the early
articles of the consulting research genre published
during the late 1980s, the contribution of texts of
the 1990s in regard to ABC appears to have been
somewhat less signi®cant. The topics moved into
new areas such as application possibilities and
experiences gained from various industries (e.g.
Bussey, 1993; Carr, 1993; Sephton & Ward, 1990;
West & West, 1997), instructions relative to ABC
implementation (e.g. Glad, 1993; Norkiewicz,
1994; Morrow & Connolly, 1994; Shields & McE-
wen, 1996) and the linking of ABC with current
management philosophies (e.g. Carlson & Young,
1993; Cooper, 1996; Moravec & Yoemans, 1992;
Salafatinos, 1995; Turney & Stratton, 1992).11
Also during the 1990s, some debate emerged
around the key ideas of ABC representative of the
genre of consulting research due to their style.
Two articles by Piper and Walley (1990, 1991),
originating in Jeans and Morrow (1989), attacked
the internal logic of ABC as well as its practical
applicability. In addition, Le-Van and Sibomana
(1992) as well as BoÈer and Jeter (1993) can be
mentioned as examples of raising somewhat cri-
tical points in relation to ABC. Cooper (1990b) is
a response to the criticism of Piper and Walley
(1990).
2.2. The nature of consulting research
Before beginning the evaluation of consulting
research, it should be pointed out that the scien-
ti®c nature of this genre is quite problematic.
Re¯ected against the standard criteria of positive
accounting research (e.g. Watts & Zimmerman,
11
About 1992, consulting-type writing activity on ABM Ð a
close relative to ABC Ð was initiated (e.g. Clark & Baxter,
1992; Cooper, Kaplan, Maisel, Morissey & Oehm, 1992; Keys,
1994; Player & Keys, 1995a,b,c; Turney, 1992). ABM systems
are models designed to control an organisation's resources,
based on the identi®cation and performance measurement of
the value-adding activities and processes of the organisation
(e.g. Morrow, 1992). Bjùrnenak and Mitchell's (1999) review
suggests that the focus of ABC literature has clearly changed
recently from ABC to ABM.
172 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
1986), the type of texts that consulting research
represents would obviously not be evidenced as
science at all: just the identi®cation of the rather
openly prescriptive nature of these writings would
lead to discrimination on those grounds. However,
in accounting, or in business studies generally,
discrimination on this basis is not automatic.
Though it has been out of fashion during the last
few decades, there is in fact a long tradition of
prescriptive literature in accounting (e.g. AAA,
1977).12 Leaving the ®nal decision concerning the
demarcation issue to the reader, we will make an
attempt below to analyse the Consulting research
on ABC as if it were to pass the test of being sci-
enti®c by nature.
2.3. Interests of knowledge
In the framework of Habermas (1971), the pro-
duction of consulting research on ABC can per-
haps be best located under the technical interest of
knowledge Ð to the extent that this part of ABC
literature should be considered scienti®c at all.
Consulting research seems to have only few con-
nections to any of the other interest options. The
technical interest of knowledge becomes visible in
the fact that consulting research writings aim quite
directly at selling to readers technologies, which
would increase the quality of organisations' cost
allocation models and thereby support their man-
agement. The fundamental purpose is thus to
enhance organisational control.13
However, it is not quite self-evident that we
should regard consulting research as being related to
the technical interest of knowledge. In this genre, the
argumentation can sometimes be uncritical, sloppy
and based on very unsystematic empirical evidence.
This is fundamentally in opposition to the idea of
the technical interest of knowledge, since the
12
However, when crossing the boundaries of positive
(accounting) research, we seem to have no clear agreement on the
demarcation criteria between science and non-science overall.
13
It should be noted Ð though this is a question of personal
motivation rather than a true interest of knowledge and thus
dicult to prove Ð that the point in writing the pieces relevant
to this genre is often likely to be the marketing of the author as
a potential ABC consultant (cf. Macintosh, 1998).
probability of control is likely to be decreased by low
scienti®c quality. In fact, there is a close similarity to
true consulting activity here: a characteristic fea-
ture of consulting activity is linked precisely to the
fact that the argumentation used is often only
vaguely founded on explicit empirical or logical
premises. The persuasive image is important
instead, as well as the belief that the `best-selling'
rhetoric is not always the most profound and rig-
orous one. As opposed to arguing that Consulting
research represents the technical interest of
knowledge, we could thus alternatively argue that
texts of this type do not, in fact, re¯ect any of the
(scienti®c) interests of knowledge Habermas had
in mind. This competing interpretation can be
read as a further claim against the scienti®c nature
of the Consulting genre writings.
2.4. Research methods
The typical research approach applied in this
genre is very pragmatic. Often it seems to be a
hybrid, consisting of several approaches. There
can therefore be indications of conceptual analysis
(clari®cation of concepts and their relations),
action-oriented work (empirical case-study based
evidence), decision-modelling (e.g. the design of
improved accounting system structures) and con-
structive development (the problems are typically
claimed to originate from the real world and the
solutions are claimed to solve those problems in
practice) in the same paper. Only the features of
the nomothetic approach are less often visible in
consulting research.14
As to the research methods applied in consulting
research, a corresponding conclusion can be
drawn: a wide selection of di€erent methods seem
to be used in even one single paper. However, one
can hardly claim that these studies are rigorous in
terms of method. They are, rather, a mixture of
anecdotal empirical ®ndings, visions of the future,
logical pondering and purely value-laden points of
view. Most often they do not even formally look
like academic research reports. They typically, for
14
Cf. the distinction of research approaches in Kasanen,
Lukka and Siitonen (1993).
 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
instance, lack the statement of the research task,
the description of the methods applied, both ex
ante and ex post theorising, and systematic refer-
ences to prior literature. The few quotations that
one encounters customarily refer to writings of the
same genre. In a way, the writings of this genre
seem to apply the notion of ``tacit knowledge''
(Polanyi, 1966): for example, one can leave some
notions unde®ned in a strict scienti®c sense, or the
understanding of certain phenomena can be left at
the level of intuition for the reader.
2.5. Style of argumentation
The style of argumentation is typically very
straightforward and vigorous in the genre of con-
sulting research. Directly from the start of the text
the reader is clari®ed as to what the message of the
text is. The following two titles of articles of this
genre are illustrative: ``ABC: a need, not an
option'' (Cooper, 1990a) or ``Nine steps to imple-
menting ABC'' (Norkiewicz, 1994). It is also typi-
cal of this genre to o€er audacious generalisations,
for instance the following:
Most companies detect the problem [of the
distorted cost information they use] only after
their competitiveness and pro®tability have
deteriorated (Cooper & Kaplan, 1988b, p. 96).
Many companies have selling, general, and
administrative (SG&A) expenses that exceed
20% of total revenues (Cooper & Kaplan,
1988b, p. 100).
Many ABC initiatives that have failed have
done so because they are the pet projects of a
middle manager, often from the ®nance
department (Morrow & Connolly, 1994, p. 76).
In recent years, cost management has become a
euphemism for cost reduction in many comp-
anies. . . (Morrow & Connolly, 1994, p. 76).
Yet neither Cooper and Kaplan (1988b) nor
Morrow and Connolly (1994) o€er virtually any
clear evidence to support their quite highly gen-
eralised statements. Cooper and Kaplan (1988b)
173
mention only three sources of evidence: the book
by Johnson and Kaplan (1987) and two articles
published in the US professional journal Manage-
ment Accounting (Cooper and Kaplan, 1988a;
Johnson & Loewe, 1987). These references o€er
general background evidence on the shortcomings
of typical costing systems, and an exemplifying
discussion of Weyerhaeuser Company's speci®c
method of tracing corporate overhead department
costs to the activities that drive them. On the other
hand, Morrow and Connolly o€er no reference list
whatsoever. Evaluated by the normal criteria for
academic research, the grounding of arguments is
far too light in the two example papers.
In the consulting research genre, the number of
arguments by paper is typically not high Ð most
often there is just one clear argument per piece Ð
and everything that is presented in the writing is
submitted to promote that end. In case counter
arguments or evidence are presented, the authors
tend to carefully eliminate their validity or rele-
vance, in order to further strengthen the power of
their own arguments. Judged by the traditional
criteria of science, the writings of the consulting
research genre can be criticised due to their one-
sided views and Jesuitical ``aim justi®es the
means'' mentality Ð features which are commonly
considered characteristic of sales activity rather
than of science.15
Despite all that is presented above, many of the
representatives of the consulting research genre
are, at the same time, well-respected members of
the academic accounting society, who may well
have a truly impressive academic publication
record. For example, Robert Kaplan and Robin
Cooper are both full Professors of American uni-
versities. This phenomenon supports our argu-
ment that, instead of focusing on the authors'
formal positions, one should focus on the entire
style of writing in the attempt to distinguish dif-
ferent genres in ABC literature.
15
Consulting research can be paralleled with so-called
`McDonaldism': a notion or model claimed to be new is sim-
pli®ed, made into a product, and ®nally marketed and sold to
the rest of the world (e.g. Ritzer, 1993).
174 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
2.6. Results
The results of the consulting research genre are
primarily oriented towards making the construc-
tion of ABC a marketable product as well as
actually selling it. As argued above in the chron-
ology of ABC literature, one can identify a
marketing process which ®rst pointed to the
need for reshaping current costing systems, then
o€ered ABC costing design as a solution model,
and lastly added details to the product by a wide
range of ABC authors. This process took place
primarily within the genre of Consulting research
on ABC.
There is currently no de®nite agreement on
when, where and by whom ABC was ®rst created
(Johnson, 1992; Kaplan, 1998; Staubus, 1990).
However, it would appear to be justi®ed to argue
that the basic principle of ABC is not new at
all.16,17 However, in our view, the consulting
research on ABC should not be evaluated as pri-
marily based on the originality of the ideas of
which it consists. The major point is that before
Kaplan, Cooper and others took charge and star-
ted making ABC a marketable product, cost
accounting had been in stagnation for several
decades. Costing system prescriptions in textbooks
and particularly costing system designs in practice
had remained unchanged and rather simplistic for
a long time. There was hardly any academic
research on real-world costing systems. Even
though people probably would not have denied
the fact that the prevailing costing system
designs were simplistic and that nobody had
paid any serious attention to their validity and
relevance for decades, nobody had really done
16
The traceability principle has been the core of costing
systems for decades (cf. Shillinglaw, 1961). In terms of this
fundamental criterion of cost allocation, ABC can be regarded
so far as the most serious attempt to follow it Ð not only in
theory, but in practice as well.
17
A similar costing model to ABC was presented as early as
in 1954 in a conference paper by Vatter (1945), and later in
1971 in a book by Staubus (1971; see Staubus, 1990). In addi-
tion, it is argued that during the 1960s the General Electric
company developed and implemented a similar, or at least clo-
sely corresponding, costing model (Johnson, 1992a).
anything in order to relieve these problems. It is
obvious that it was precisely the consulting
research literature on ABC that triggered an
awakening and renaissance of the real-world
linked costing system design discussion and related
action.
At the end of the 1980s, the ®eld of costing sys-
tems started to change very rapidly. Suddenly, the
costing system designs, which had been accepted
without questioning, were targets of vigorous cri-
ticism. The product-like nature and the active
marketing of ABC by the consulting research
authors, together with the activities of consultants,
created room for and encouraged the opening-up
of a bundle of problems long omitted. Suddenly,
people interested in management accounting
seemed to agree that indeed there are signi®cant
problems in the practical costing system designs.
Increasingly, people started to consider ABC as a
potentially useful solution to those problems. The
Consulting research genre was no doubt successful
in its project, which has led not only to a wide
discussion but also to action in ®rms around the
globe.
Were the described e€ects truly produced by the
genre of consulting research on ABC? The case
will always be somewhat uncertain due to the
problem of counter-factuality. Was the basic dri-
ver of the process really a ``true functional need''
to reshape ®rms' costing systems, or is ABC just
another managerial ``fad'' (Abrahamson, 1991; cf.
Rogers, 1995; see also Malmi, 1999)? Probably it
was partly both, as typical of this kind of phe-
nomena (cf. Granlund & Lukka, 1998b). The gra-
dual di€usion of ABC in practice, and the already
now relatively long-lasting interest in it, o€ers
evidence for the functional need of ABC. However
there are symptoms of an institutionalised man-
agerial fad as well, for instance, as practising
managers seem far too eager to argue that the ®rm
they represent applies ABC. In fact, there is a
widely held belief that, for the 1990s, the ®gures
for ABC adoption rate were often upward-
biased.18 This indicates that ABC is part of the
18
Cf. e.g. Bright, Davies, Downes and Sweeting (1992) who
found incredibly high ABC adoption rates in the UK; see also
Malmi (1999).
 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
®rms' image-building projects, and the claimed
application of ABC is believed to o€er a positive
signal to the shareholders of the ®rm of being
managerially up-to-date (e.g. Abrahamson).
3. The genre of basic research
3.1. General description
Basic research includes a large number of ex
post facto analyses of ABC with the common aim
to add to existing theories of management
accounting phenomena. These studies share a
common core as regards their underlying assump-
tions: they do not tend to question the value of
managerial constructions as such in the manner of
ABC. A typical objective of basic research is to
describe, explain and understand with scienti®c
rigour to which extent, how, and why ABC is used.
The ®rst studies in this genre emerged shortly
after the introduction of ABC in the consulting
research genre. The largest volume of these studies
has, however, not appeared until the mid-1990s,
probably not least because the publication pro-
cesses in academic journals can, as is well known,
take quite a while. The research approaches applied
in this genre are many. In the following discussion,
four main modes of basic research on ABC are dis-
tinguished and their key features described. The sub-
genres are de®ned as primarily based on the research
method applied: conceptual research, mathematical
modelling, statistical studies, and case studies.
Conceptual research is a rather rare sub-genre of
ABC research, in which the typical objective is to
clarify the concepts of ABC and to map structural
similarities and di€erences of ABC with regard to
practices that have already prevailed for a longer
time in certain geographical regions, for instance
(e.g. Boons, Roberts & Roozen, 1992; Innes &
Mitchell, 1990; Israelsen, 1994; Kasanen & Malmi,
1994; Roberts, 1994). In general terms, the aim of
this sub-genre is to examine earlier studies through
comprehensive analysis and synthesis, so that
prior knowledge is in the end presented in a new,
hopefully clearer form. The method applied could
be referred to as theoretical deduction (Lukka,
Majala, Paasio & Pihlanto, 1984). Management
175
Accounting Research has been the most common
publication forum for this type of study.
Mathematical modelling in ABC research (e.g.
Babad & Balachandran, 1993; Balachandran,
Balakrishnan & Sivarakrishnan, 1997; Datar &
Gupta, 1994; Noreen, 1990, 1991) leans on an
extensive analytical research tradition in the area
of management accounting, particularly with
respect to cost allocation (Dillon & Nash, 1978;
Lere, 1986; Zimmermann, 1979). The typical pub-
lication forums for this type of studies have been
The Accounting Review and Journal of Management
Accounting Research, but they have also appeared in
the Journal of Accounting and Economics and in
Management Accounting Research. Studies of this
type have largely focused on the mathematical rela-
tionships between costs and the activities that cause
them. In brief, these studies aim at a systematic
analysis of cost behaviour in di€erent kinds of
operational environments, and at the construction
of mathematical models predicting cost behaviour.
Many of these studies possess, at least implicitly, a
prescriptive orientation, as they present sugges-
tions for improving decision-making under certain
operative conditions.
Statistical studies on ABC either use pre-existing
databases or collect statistical data for the analysis
from the ®eld. Survey studies use postal survey
questionnaires for data collection. These studies
have largely focused on the prevalence of ABC
within various business sectors or countries, the
structure of ABC systems, and user opinions on
ABC with regard to conventional costing systems
(e.g. Bescos & Mendoza, 1995; Groot & van Gool,
1996; Innes & Mitchell, 1991, 1995).19 Today,
there is a distinctive group for studies that expli-
citly concentrate on the successfulness of and
satisfaction with ABC implementations (e.g.
Shields, 1995; Swenson, 1995). The nature of ABC
di€usion is currently also a popular theme of sur-
vey research (e.g. Bjùrnenak, 1997; Gosselin, 1997;
Malmi, 1996, 1999). Pivotal publication forums
19
A number of surveys on cost accounting practices also
exist in which ABC has formed only part of a wider survey
study (e.g. Ask & Ax, 1992; Clarke, 1992; Drury & Tayles,
1994; Lukka & Granlund, 1996; Theunisse, 1992).
176 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
for such survey studies have been the Journal of
Management Accounting Research and Manage-
ment Accounting Research.
A more theory-driven statistical approach is
present in econometric analyses, which typically
approach ABC through statistical empirical data
(self-collected or pre-existing databases) that is
applied in rigorous and extensive mathematical
analysis/modelling, leaning on the analytical
research tradition. Instead of optimisation, typical
of mathematical modelling, the frequent aim of
these studies is to explain, through empirical (sta-
tistical) testing key relationships identi®ed in the
``ABC theory,'' the relationship between overhead
accumulation and various characteristics related
to the mode of operation of the examined ®rm(s)
(e.g. Foster & Gupta, 1990a; Noreen & Soder-
strom, 1994). The major publication forum for the
econometric studies on ABC has been the Journal
of Management Accounting Research.
Case studies on ABC have described and
explained Ð at the level of individual ®rms Ð why
and how companies have experimented with, or
adopted, ABC. Primary data collection methods
include di€erent interview methods and partici-
pant observing. Common to all case studies is the
attempt to gain more in-depth views on the prac-
tices of single ®rms than what can be obtained
with statistical methods: they also examine expla-
natory factors which cannot be unambiguously
measured in developed scales and statistically tes-
ted thereby. The Journal of Management Account-
ing Research and Management Accounting
Research are among the most common publication
forums for these studies.
Most of the earlier case studies on ABC have
examined individual or a few ABC systems at a
time by primarily comparing the technical solu-
tions of ABC with the previously used systems,
along with their decision-making implications (e.g.
Foster & Gupta, 1990b; Kovac & Troy, 1989;
Malmi, 1994; Spicer & Colbert, 1990; cf. Spicer,
1992). Later on, a special interest has been devo-
ted to factors a€ecting the successfulness or
unsuccessfulness of ABC implementation projects.
Although some of these studies mainly hold to
listing and grouping of these factors for possible
later hypothesis generation and testing, they also
tie the analysis to a wider organisational and
social context (e.g. Anderson, 1995; Cobb, Helliar
& Innes, 1995; Cobb, Innes & Mitchell, 1993;
Gietzmann, 1991; Hussain & Rickwood, 1993).
An even more in-depth, interpretative approach
has been adopted in the case of studies which are
not only limited to straightforward inter-
dependencies. These studies explicitly emphasise
the complexity of organisational action, and add
to theory by examining and discussing issues such
as power games around ABC projects, account-
ability relationships and the changes in them in
relation to new ABC systems, and the unintended
consequences of ABC implementations (e.g. Bhi-
mani & Pigott, 1992; Malmi, 1997; Partanen,
1997; see also Argyris & Kaplan, 1994).
3.2. Interests of knowledge
As an attempt to neutrally20 describe, explain
and understand the ABC phenomenon as char-
acteristic of the genre of basic research, we may
state that the theoretical interest of knowledge
underlies these studies. However, in most cases
this aim is mixed with other interests of knowledge
which may even dominate the underlying theore-
tical interest of knowledge.
Whereas the conceptual research sub-genre tends
to follow the theoretical interest of knowledge,
research in the sub-genres of mathematical model-
ling and statistical studies fundamentally aims at the
clari®cation of objective relationships and regula-
rities in an instrumentalist Ð controlling and
predictive Ð spirit, hence re¯ecting the technical
interest of knowledge. In the sub-genre of case stu-
dies, the interest of knowledge is primarily practical:
interpretative and aiming at deepening our under-
standing of the phenomena under examination.
However, part of the case studies seems to
represent the technical interest of knowledge as
well, as it is, to a considerable extent, interested in
the instrumental role of ABC in decision-making.
Such case studies originate almost without excep-
tion in the USA. This di€erence may basically be
explained by reference to the di€erent underlying
20
To the extent that any research can ever be totally neutral
(e.g. Baker & Bettner, 1997).
 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
research traditions, also re¯ected in the mode the
hermeneutic case research tradition is applied in
the United States. In addition, in American case
studies a lot of space is typically devoted to defence
of the case method, which is obviously felt to be
needed in US research forums, in which the case
method is still ®ghting for prestige (Panozzo, 1997;
see also Baker & Bettner, 1997; Shields, 1997).
3.3. Styles of argumentation
If the argumentation style of consulting research
was ¯amboyant, the argumentation style of Basic
research overall appears much ``duller''. This style
attempts to be much more neutral than that
applied in the consulting research genre, being
more comprehensive and providing the actual
space for counter-arguments as well. Common to
all basic research is the application of theory and
the presentation of an explicit problem setting
used to structure the study and promote systema-
tic analysis. In the eyes of practitioners, the style
of basic research is probably less exciting. One
particular example of the di€erences in the styles
of argumentation between the consulting research
genre and the Basic research genre can be found in
the considerations on the e€ects of ABC systems on
companies' pro®tability. Whereas basic researchers
are very careful in regard to any claims concerning
this issue, consulting researchers typically bypass
this question as if it were self-evident. More gen-
erally speaking, basic researchers avoid presenting
audacious claims and generalisations without
extensive, systematic evidence on which to base
such claims.
The fact that the genre of basic research
includes a heterogeneous set of the interests of
knowledge and research methods Ð and beyond
them heterogeneity concerning assumptions about
ontology, epistemology and human nature (Bur-
rell & Morgan, 1979) Ð seems to have also resulted
in some internal heterogeneity of argumentation
styles within this genre. Mathematical modelling
and statistical studies have assimilated the rigorous
mode of analysis and style of argumentation typi-
cal to the positivistic approach overall. Numbers
and hard facts are important in this tradition.
However, the volume of incremental contribution
177
to former knowledge is not crucially important:
small contributions are welcomed, too, if they can
be clearly presented. On the other hand, inter-
pretative case research typically attempts to uncover
broader issues, the argumentation style being, at its
best, of creative ¯air. ABC and its implementation
processes are then linked with wider social exam-
inations within which the use of power and legiti-
macy issues play an important role.
Common to all studies in the basic research
genre is the systematic citing of representative
bibliography. What types of studies are cited in
the basic research genre and its respective sub-
genres is yet another question. Our analysis sug-
gests that the genre of consulting research is
extensively referred to in the basic research. Actu-
ally, in an amazingly large number of studies, the
whole problem setting is derived from a group of
studies belonging to the genre of consulting
research. In contrast, the genre of critical research
is absent in the cited bibliography. Regarding cit-
ing between the sub-genres, we are able to observe
that while all sub-genres intensely cite studies in
their own sub-genre, they all also quite intensely
cite the conceptual sub-genre (and textbooks).
This is possibly not least due to the fact that it
provides the conceptual apparatus or ``theory'' for
further analysis and ``common knowledge'' about
the ABC phenomenon. Otherwise citing between
the sub-genres is very limited and occasional.
An interesting issue revealed by our analysis is
also the fact that citing is often locally focused. In
the extreme form Ð which is indeed very
common Ð this means that a study conducted by
a US author is published in an American journal
and the bibliography cited is totally of US origin.
The fact that ABC can be considered Ð though
with reservations Ð as an American innovation
might explain this phenomenon in part. However,
to give an example, as US authors conduct
research on the behavioural and organisational
implications of ABC, frequently there is no refer-
ence to European case studies, in which the
examination of these issues already has an estab-
lished status. On the other hand, it appears that
the quotations used by non-US Basic researchers
are largely in balance regarding their locality: they
cite bibliography globally. Overall, this seems to
178 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
re¯ect the locally biased nature of the accounting
discipline (Lukka & Kasanen, 1996).
3.4. Results
The genre of basic research has no doubt
increased our knowledge about ABC and its
implications. Theory building basic research has
examined the di€usion and drivers of ABC, and
shed light on the reasons leading to ABC imple-
mentation and its success. All studies in this genre
have taken part in the process of theorising
(Weick, 1995), even though di€erent views exist on
the best ways of carrying it out (Sutton & Staw,
1995; see also DiMaggio, 1995; Weick, 1995).
Theory development is the common idea in which
the whole genre of basic research has conviction.
This is re¯ected in the certain ``standard format''
applied in this genre when doing research: a thor-
ough link to earlier literature/theory (ex ante), the
presentation of the problem setting, analysis based
on scienti®c techniques, presentation of results vis-
aÂ-vis earlier knowledge (ex post).
The multitude of research practices applied
within the genre of basic research also admittedly
drives some internal heterogeneity as regards the
nature of the results. The results attained through
mathematical modelling (e.g. exact formulas and
their optimum points), and, on the other hand, the
rather woolly results of the interpretative case
studies clearly di€er from each other. Making
comparisons between the results obtained in these
di€erent research traditions is therefore dicult.
For example, the views on the crucial role of sta-
tistical generalisations among the criteria of scien-
ti®c examination vary considerably amongst the
various sub-genres (cf. Lukka & Kasanen, 1995).
Still, we may state that they all add to a common
theory base, albeit in di€erent ways.
What is then the practical value of the results
obtained in the genre of basic research? Probably
many of the basic researchers truly believe in the
practical value of their results in the mode they
currently appear. However, practitioners tend to
appreciate working managerial solutions which
are simple and easy to use and have positive cost-
bene®t ratio as well (Granlund & Lukka, 1998a;
Kasanen et al., 1993). In fact, there seems to be a
gap between the nature of the results of typical
Basic research studies and the expectations of
practitioners.
4. The genre of critical research
4.1. General description
The genre of Critical ABC research adopts a
particular point of view regarding research ques-
tions: it critically addresses the complex social
rami®cations management accounting systems
may have. Research in this genre creates an expli-
cit link between accounting and (the promotion
of) social change. ABC is regarded in this context
as one of the instruments used to support the pre-
vailing status quo in society (cf. Hopper & Powell,
1985). Beyond this, research in this genre is expli-
citly critical about the perception that accounting
provides a mere static re¯ection of economic rea-
lity, but rather sees it as serving wider, societal
purposes. With the aim of furthering emancipa-
tion, this genre appears fundamentally committed
and value-laden (cf. Baker & Bettner, 1997).
There are, number-wise, much fewer studies
which o€er fundamental criticism regarding ABC
and its underlying assumptions than studies inclu-
ded in the two other genres. It is also worth noting
that this genre is a relatively new phenomenon in
accounting research overall.21 Furthermore, the
genre of critical research is more dicult to iden-
tify in the ABC literature, as its relation with ABC
di€ers from that of the other two genres. Most of
the studies in the genre of critical research o€er
broad, socially-oriented critique of the various
arguments in Johnson and Kaplan's (1987) book.
The critique is not only addressed against ABC as
21
The socio-critical school of accounting research seems to
have seen daylight in the UK during the 1970s, inspired by the
Frankfurt school in particular. An important sociologist in this
regard has been JuÈrgen Habermas (in accounting research, see
e.g. Arrington & Puxty, 1991). In addition to these, the critical
accounting research has gained in¯uence from, for instance,
Michel Foucault (e.g. Hoskin & Macve, 1986, 1988; Loft, 1986,
1988, 1993; Miller & O'Leary, 1987), Pierre Bourdieu (e.g. Lee,
1995; Williams & Rogers, 1995), and Bruno Latour (e.g.
Preston, Cooper & Coombs, 1992; Robson, 1992).
 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
such, but also against the assumptions and argu-
ments behind ABC. We saw it essential to examine
the critique on ABC from this wider perspective as
well, focusing on the background of ABC. As was
noted in Section 1, by only looking at the ``ABC
label'' we would have missed this genre, which
clearly exists within the (management) accounting
academia (Roslender, 1996; see also Baker &
Bettner, 1997).
In the critical research genre, the book by
Johnson and Kaplan (1987) Ð important as
regards both the recent development of manage-
ment accounting discussion in general and ABC in
particular Ð has been the target of criticism in
several studies (e.g. Neimark & Tinker, 1987;
Hopper, 1988; Ezzamel, Hoskin & Macve, 1990;
Lowry, 1993; Vollmers, 1996). Most of these
deconstructive literature analyses share one com-
mon feature: they go back in time and try to show
the shortcomings in Johnson and Kaplan's argu-
ments concerning the history and current status of
modern management accounting. The argumenta-
tion of these critics leans, for instance, on early
management accounting textbooks in which one
cannot ®nd support for the claims of Johnson and
Kaplan, or the critique may point to the lack of a
theoretical basis of Johnson and Kaplan's funda-
mental `relevance lost' argument.
Common to the critique is also the concern for
ignorance of the individual human being, or more
generally, concern for the assumptions about
human nature (cf. Loft, 1991; Miller & O'Leary,
1990). For example, Neimark and Tinker (1987)
present a socio-critical statement and accuse
Johnson and Kaplan (1987) of socio-Darwinism
(see also Yuthas & Tinker, 1994). They argue that
Johnson and Kaplan handle individuals unjusti®-
ably only as ``atoms'' Ð as impersonal mechanical
parts. Also typical to the genre of Critical research
is an analysis of the interaction between account-
ing and major-scale social changes. For example,
Hopper (1988) presents an alternative historical
explanation to the developments described by
Johnson and Kaplan based on Marxist labour
process theory. The study concludes that the
development of certain management accounting
systems over time can most conveniently be
explained by changes in labour processes, awa-
179
kened by the various change-related phases of
capitalism (see also Hopper & Armstrong, 1992).
The important thing is that these critiques do
not accept either the view o€ered in the studies
they criticise concerning the current situation of
accounting theory and practice or the develop-
ment path that led to this situation, or both. While
in critical studies the current state of a€airs
regarding the relevance of management account-
ing systems may occasionally be at least partly
accepted Ð though with an entirely di€erent view
of how the current state was reached Ð in most of
these studies the notion of irrelevance is ques-
tioned, even though it may not always be so
clearly stated. The attention is, in any case, turned
away from accounting techniques to fundamen-
tally di€erent issues. For example, Ezzamel et al.
(1990, p. 162) state ``[I]f Johnson & Kaplan are
looking for remedies for the perceived malaise of
MAS in the West, we believe that the focus should
be not so much on the techniques of cost calcula-
tion and identi®cation as on the behavioural and
organisational contexts in which the MAS are
operated.'' Such a statement undermines the need
for ABC, as it implies that the irrelevance problem
is not a technical problem, but rather a managerial
and organisational problem.
4.2. Interests of knowledge, research methods and
styles of argumentation
The interest of knowledge followed in the genre of
critical research is, more or less visibly, emancipa-
tory (cf. Baker & Bettner, 1997). It is precisely the
applied interest of knowledge, related to the com-
mitted and value-laden nature of these studies, that
fundamentally demarcates the critical research
genre from the basic research genre. Otherwise, the
appearance of the critical genre is quite similar to the
genre of basic research, regarding the link to earlier
literature/theory, presentation of problem setting,
and analysis based on scienti®c rigour. The method
in this genre is typically conceptual analysis based
on a literature review. In some studies empirical
material is also included, though it has seldom
played the primary role.
It is characteristic of the genre of critical
research to apply a sophisticated style of
180 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
argumentation with high level of abstraction
peppered with a strong deconstructive ¯avour. As
Roslender (1996, p. 533) notes, the critique of
strategic management accounting in general is
characterised by a ``[. . .] dismissive tone with the
almost predictable conclusion that there is little
here that promises to contribute to a more
attractive accounting praxis.'' It is also the com-
mitment to social theories and argumentation
in their spirit that increases the distance of many
of these studies to everyday, practical business
operation. This seems to have generated certain
elitism around a relatively small discussion
group representing this approach (Bourdieu,
1990).
Indeed, sociological theories play the key role in
this genre. It is precisely the application of socio-
logical theories through which, for example,
Johnson and Kaplan's diagnosis of the causes of
the modern ``disease'' is given a di€erent content.
Such analyses typically draw on Foucauldian,
Habermasian, and Marxist ideas, but also on a
wider set of ideas presented in social theories
(Roslender, 1990, 1996). It is interesting to note
that the typically abstract results derived through
the use of social theories imply a normative ¯a-
vour. The typical aim is to increase the reader's
awareness of the suppressing in¯uence of
accounting (and managerial) technology. The pre-
scriptions o€ered concern also the methods (con-
textual in-depth analyses) as well as the theoretical
points of support (sociological theories) that
should be applied in research.
Due to the method of literature analysis, long
lists of bibliography are typically present in this
genre. However, due to the nature of this genre as
described above, the majority of the referred bib-
liography does not deal with ABC as such, but
represents basic research, mainly conceptual
research, on the history of Western management
practices or the like. A notable minority of quo-
tations is within the genre of critical research itself.
There tends to be very little, if any, quoting to
studies belonging to the consulting research genre,
except in reference to the book by Johnson and
Kaplan (1987), which forms the most important
target of analysis for this genre, its in¯uence thus
being remarkable.
4.3. Results
Studies belonging to the genre of critical
research can be basically interesting to the ``main-
stream academia'' (Baker & Bettner, 1997), in that
they apply wide explanation models and build on
``exotic'' theoretical standpoints. Overall, similarly
as in the case of the Basic research genre, the genre
of Critical research has contributed to accounting
theory by describing and explaining phenomena in
a scienti®c manner. However, this has taken place
from a radically di€erent perspective than in the
genre of basic research. The style in which ideas
have been presented is excessively critical, decon-
structive, which has apparently made the critical
studies appear unappealing for the other genres
for further discussion.
Various researchers and practitioners surely
view the immediate practical usefulness of the
results produced in this genre very di€erently. The
general attitude in these studies is at least impli-
citly negative Ð sometimes almost antagonistic Ð
towards the convergence development between
accounting research and practice. Moreover, they
do not o€er alternative models of practical opera-
tion after presenting crushing critique. People oper-
ating in today's business environment probably ®nd
such a style strange. The communication channel of
these critics towards practice seems to be actually
non-existent, as well as the e€ect of this research
genre on the practical operations of business.
5. Discussion
We started our illustrative exploration through
the ABC literature, as described above, by distin-
guishing, ®rstly, three genres in it. The distinction
of di€erent genres was based on the general style
of the texts comprising of several characteristics,
and was linked to the typical process of knowledge
development. Our categorisation was not copied
from any previous study, but rather re¯ected our
belief, based on a profound review of this litera-
ture, that it would help us in relating an inter-
esting, sociology of science type of story about
ABC in its academic and practical contexts. After
the fact we think it was, though not entirely
 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
unproblematic, almost surprisingly easy to cluster
ABC literature into the three genres we selected to
de®ne. Naturally there are some marginal pieces
which include features of more than one genre.22
However, more important than the ability to
unambiguously group ABC literature into these
three genres is what kind of more general message
this distinction and the analysis of their char-
acteristics may produce. In the following we will
o€er our interpretation about this.
According to our classi®cation, the three
important genres of ABC literature are consulting
research, basic research and critical research. The
role of consulting research is to propagate for
ABC at a level close to the practical development
and implementation of this costing design con-
struction. The authors of this genre tend to have
an optimistic, entrepreneurial mind: they do not
paralyse the phenomenon of ABC by analysing it
to the extreme, but rather attempt to see possibi-
lities for new constructions and improvement at
the level of practical action. The backside of this is
the fact that consulting researchers are often vul-
nerable to criticism concerning the logic and evi-
dence they base their arguments on. The genre of
basic research represents the ``standard'' scholarly
practices in management accounting research. The
role of this genre is to enter the ®eld ex post facto
in order to analyse new phenomena with varying
methods, in line with the traditional model of
science. As regards action at the level of practice,
the constructive output of basic research is appar-
ently only marginal. However, the authors repre-
senting critical research are typically even less
constructive in their approach. Characteristic of
the texts of this genre is their commitment to cer-
tain value judgements and their fundamentally
socio-critical nature. Rather than providing just
an evaluative examination of ABC as such, they
tend to present a much wider social point of view.
ABC seems to be the ®rst management accounting
technique against which the critical arrows of this
type have been directed. This may be partly due to
22
The famous book by Johnson and Kaplan (1987) is a
good example here, re¯ecting the features of both consulting
and basic research.
181
the obvious signi®cance of ABC both in academic
and practical circles. In addition, the emergence of
ABC was preceded by an important book, that of
Johnson and Kaplan (1987), which raised a lot of
attention among the critical researchers.
It is important to note that the analysis of pub-
lished accounting research on ABC does not
necessarily re¯ect the entire discussion in an
unbiased manner. This applies particularly to the
published texts of the critical research genre,
which are quite rarely encountered, after all. In
our experience, ABC has often been the target of
frequent and quite harsh criticism in accounting
research workshop and conference sessions, and
informal ``corridor'' debates. However, the bulk of
the criticism raised in these discussions, or working
papers, seems not to have progressed to the point
of real publications. Currently, a similar pattern
seems to be emerging regarding the more recently
launched construction of Balanced Scorecard.
Does this kind of a three-fold genre structure
apply to ABC literature only? Historical analyses
seem to suggest that there have always existed,
though in a much smaller scale, di€erent genres of
research around new management accounting phe-
nomena (e.g. DCF-techniques and cost-volume-
pro®t analysis; e.g. Miller, 1998). Discussion on
ABC seems to represent the latest phase of evolu-
tion, in which the current genre structure dis-
tinguished in this study has established its position.
It seems as if the situation has partly reverted to the
situation dominant at the beginning of the 20th
century. As Bromwich (1998) points out, the latest
accounting innovations have predominantly come
from practice and consultants. Very few, if any, of
the recent innovative management accounting prac-
tices tend to originate from researchers (cf. Kasanen
et al., 1993).23 As Bromwich (1998) notes, there
seems to be a considerable time lag between the
emergence of an innovation and the appearance of
articles in research journals Ð for instance in the
case of ABC Ð examining its fundamental logic
23
However, one can currently ®nd emerging indications of
accounting researchers' increasing activity in participating in
the design processes of accounting innovations (Lukka &
Shields, 1999).
182 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
and subjecting it to empirical testing. However, in
the meantime, practical concerns have already
moved on to activity-based management, business
process re-engineering, the balanced scorecard and
economic value added.
Fig. 1 summarises the communication structure
between the genres of ABC literature.24 Our ana-
lysis emphasises in particular the important role of
the consulting research genre as the initiator of a
considerable amount of management accounting
research (solid arrow from the consulting research
genre to the basic research genre). It seems that
without this initiative role the consulting research
genre tends to play, there would not be much new
to examine for the other genres. Now, as manage-
ment accounting (and related) innovations tend to
emerge into the market in shortening intervals,
primarily through the genre of consulting
researchers, basic researchers obtain material for
their studies in abundance. This re¯ects a wider
pattern, implying that practical concerns are these
days increasingly re¯ected within the basic
research genre (Bromwich, 1998; cf. Lukka &
Shields, 1999).
An evaluative look at the current genre structure
in management accounting research literature
reveals that the genre of basic research, though it
has a fragmented internal structure, seems to lack
a sub-genre which could Ð more e€ectively than
the current ones (which typically focus on the
analysis of practice ex post facto) Ð be involved in
the creation and implementation of new innova-
tive practices while, however, still being based on
rigid academic justi®cation principles and sound
knowledge of prior research literature. There are
some examples of such intervention type of studies
in limited form when the approach of action
research is applied (e.g. JoÈnsson, 1996; JoÈnsson &
GroÈnlund, 1988). Recently, arguments have been
presented for such intervention studies in a stron-
ger form as well (Kaplan, 1998; Kasanen et al.,
1993; cf. Lukka & Shields, 1999), and there are
examples of such research projects in which the
24
In Fig. 1, the solid arrows refer to signi®cant in¯uence by
one genre on another, and dotted arrows to such in¯uence on a
more limited scale.
Fig. 1. The structure of communication and in¯uence between
the genres of activity-based costing literature.
constructive approach to ®eld research is applied
(e.g. PuolamaÈki, 1998; Tuomela, 1999).
Regarding the structure of communication
between di€erent genres, we can conclude, in
addition to the quite natural fact that, in general,
the representatives of each genre tend to follow
the discussion within their own genre, that con-
sulting research appears to a€ect Basic research
considerably and critical research to a limited
extent. Basic research seems to have a limited
in¯uence on consulting research, but a signi®cant
one on Critical research. The in¯uence of the cri-
tical genre on the two other genres appears to be
almost non-existent. In addition, the genre of
basic research is internally quite diverse in terms
of interests of knowledge and methodology,
resulting in limited internal communication.
Our analysis suggests that the genre of Critical
research is largely ignored by the two other genres,
re¯ecting its limited in¯uence. This is not solely a
quotation issue, but also applies in terms of sub-
stance: no matter what the purposes of the
researchers in the other genres are, the ideas pre-
sented in studies belonging to the critical research
genre have not really become re¯ected on them. On
the other hand, since researchers in the critical genre
need material to criticise, it is natural that they seek
and ®nd such material from the other genres. Over-
all, ``[. . .] there has been little cross-fertilization to
date'' (Roslender, 1996, p. 533), as regards, in par-
ticular, communication between the critical genre
and the two other genres. This is possibly partly
due to the predictably dismissive tone of the critical
 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
genre, which researchers in the other genres may see
as an impossible basis for fruitful discussion. There-
fore, it is hardly surprising that for instance the cri-
tical researchers who apply Marxist theories ``[. . .]
seem to be increasingly aggrieved by the fact that
few people appear interested in the worrying insights
they o€er. . .'' (Roslender, 1996, p. 534), the conclu-
sion obviously being that the Critical genre should
apply at least a bit more positive and progressive
agenda in the future.
As regards the relationship between the genres
of consulting research and basic research, the
in¯uence of the consulting research genre on the
basic research genre is quite clear. The majority of
basic research genre articles begin with references
to early consulting research writings (such as
Johnson & Kaplan, 1987, or Cooper & Kaplan,
1988b), which thereby, at least partially, de®ne the
problem setting of the basic research studies in
question. The few references used in the articles
included in the consulting research genre, on the
other hand, indicate a relationship characterised
by a more limited following of the genre of basic
research. However, the style applied in the con-
sulting research genre ``avoids'' the scienti®c spirit
inherent in the basic research genre, part of which
is the usage of extensive bibliographic citations.
Our analysis yet also suggests that the ideas pre-
sented in basic research articles are, in fact, only
seldom observable in the consulting research
genre. Thus, it is not only the lack of citations that
point to the fact that the basic research genre, as
such, has only little true in¯uence on the Consult-
ing research genre. One has still to bear in mind
that, according to Bjùrnenak and Mitchell (1999),
the bulk of ABC/M articles published in profes-
sional journals (mostly representing consulting
research) are authored by academics. This is one
additional indication of the fact that the analysis
of published literature itself cannot o€er a full
picture of all interdependencies within the ABC
®eld, but that there can be relationships which
would require other research methods (e.g. inter-
views) besides those applied in this study, to
become uncovered.
Latour (1987) discussed the role of networking
and getting allies in research. He argued that it is
normally dangerous to be an ``isolated researcher''
183
who does not e€ectively connect his/her argu-
mentation and referencing to useful allies: there is
a high risk that the results will just get ignored.
The genres of basic and critical research of ABC
literature seem to follow Latour's rule: the argu-
ments and ®ndings are typically supported by a
heavy arsenal of allies. Contrary to that, the genre
of consulting research seems to function di€er-
ently. The arguments are typically supported by a
rather thinly documented justi®cation structure
and by only few, if any, references Ð much is left
for the intuition and pure faith of the reader. In
this genre the networking expectation of Latour
does not seem as necessary as in the other two.
However, this is probably understandable since
the evaluation criteria of the authors of this genre
do not focus on the academic type of merits, but
rather on the commercial results their writings
produce for their consulting activities, for
instance. It should be noted that the consulting
industry in management accounting, which has
recently expanded in a very rapid pace, has
become a major global player in regard to the
development of management accounting practices
(Granlund & Lukka, 1998b).
Overall, ABC literature appears to be frag-
mented (Bourdieu, 1990). In addition, that frag-
mentation is asymmetrical, particularly in the
sense that texts representing the genres of consult-
ing and basic research do not pay much attention
to critical research. Since the networking between
the di€erent genres of ABC research is in many
cases either rather weak or lacking, the dialogue
stressed by Gadamer (1975) does not appear to
¯ourish in ABC research.
Carmona and GutieÂrrez (1998) state that inter-
action among accounting academics is increasing.
This may be the case as regards general interna-
tional co-operation, for example, in terms of the
growing global pro®le of accounting conferences
(European Accounting Association, Inter-
disciplinary Perspectives on Accounting, etc.). Our
analysis seems to indicate, however, that this has
resulted solely in the homogenisation of research
subjects, not in true interaction over genre (and
sub-genre) borders. The accumulation of accounting
knowledge has thereby been slowed down or even
hindered. The results derived in di€erent discussion
184 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
circles tend to have a very limited e€ect on each
other. Researchers applying, for example, analy-
tical or critical approaches tend to favour, and
have a true chance for, a fruitful academic com-
munication in only their own discussion forums as
regards conferences, workshops as well as pub-
lication forums. The best workshops are typically
considered to be those which gather together
researchers applying at least roughly similar
research approaches. Thus, the fragmented struc-
ture of the accounting academia does not appear
to considerably bother accounting researchers.
The condition that the dialogue within ABC
research over genre and sub-genre frontiers is very
limited is further shaped by the fact that the genre
of basic research is internally fragmented in a
manner that is both methodologically as well as
locally asymmetric. Regarding the latter, the US
basic researchers tend to quote almost entirely US
prior research, while basic researchers from other
countries quote prior studies much more globally.
This ®nding ®ts well to those of Lukka and Kasanen
(1996), showing the dominance of local elements
over the global ones in published accounting
research overall, even in the top research journals,
and the particularly strong domestic orientation of
the US accounting research community (cf. Bour-
dieu, 1990; Lee, 1995; Williams & Rodgers, 1995).
The emergence of the local bias in ABC research is
also testi®ed in Bjùrnenak and Mitchell's (1999)
study. In their sample of ABC articles, 100% of
the authors having published in US journals come
from the United States, while in the UK-based
journals the country-based origin of authors is
widely dispersed.
There is also a fragmentation of another kind
within the genre of basic research: the results of
studies following the di€erent interests of knowl-
edge and di€erent methodological approaches Ð
in particular, in comparing the results of mathe-
matical modelling and in-depth case studies Ð are
very di€erent in nature. The dialogue between
researchers seems weak and in places non-existent
in this regard. This observation relates back to the
observation of the locally oriented bias of the
accounting research literature, too. As the results
of Bjùrnenak and Mitchell (1999) show, with
the exception of one study, all pieces applying
mathematical modelling or econometric analysis
have been published in American journals. Refer-
ring to StegmuÈller's (1969) four-item typology, it
seems that one can ®nd all levels of alienation,
depending on the relation of what genres or sub-
genres we analyse. The widest gap probably exists
between the genre of critical research and the two
other genres: there seems to be almost no dialogue
at all, a one-way relationship only.
The di€erent interests of knowledge as sug-
gested by Habermas (1971) and partly by Niini-
luoto (1980) obviously represent one important
explanatory factor behind the described situation:
our analysis suggests that communication across
the barriers between the true interests of knowl-
edge the authors have adopted cannot easily
become a genuine dialogue in the sense Gadamer
points to. The consulting research genre can be
considered to represent the technical interest of
knowledge. The ultimate purpose is to sell readers
ideas or technologies which arguably increase
organisational eciency through enhanced man-
agement control systems. In the genre of basic
research, a multitude of interests of knowledge can
be discovered. Many studies representing the basic
research genre follow the technical interest of
knowledge as well. However, even though the
fundamental interest of knowledge is typically
technical, it is often only implicitly present in basic
research studies, being also quite often mixed with
the theoretical interest of knowledge. In addition,
one wing of this genre, that of interpretative case
studies, tends to follow the practical interest of
knowledge. The genre of critical research repre-
sents, in its committed style of analysis, the eman-
cipatory interest of knowledge. Thus, in addition
to certain commonalities, several clear di€erences
exist in regard to various genres as these relate to
the interest of knowledge they represent. These
features inherently widen the gap between the dif-
ferent genres as well as complicate communication
across their borderlines.
From the Habermasian perspective, the genre of
consulting research o€ers a particularly interesting
issue of discussion. As noted above in Section 2, a
competing interpretation to arguing that it would
represent the technical interest of knowledge
would be that it does not represent any of the
 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
interests of (scienti®c) knowledge Habermas had
in mind. This interpretation would imply that
consulting research should be counted out from
the realm of science. If this more radical inter-
pretation is adopted, then it becomes even more
striking that the genre of consulting research is so
often taken as a quite serious and much cited
starting point to the analyses for critical research,
and particularly for basic research. Despite its
quite obvious weaknesses from the scienti®c point
of view, it really seems to matter in the network of
management accounting argumentation.
We suggest two optional ways of understanding
this. One is that the unscienti®c style of consulting
research would be just the representational surface,
and that there is still a fundamental scienti®cally
solid basis to be taken seriously in the background.
These fundamental premises are, however, non-
facilitated to the reader in order to keep the argu-
ment straight and clean and the text short. Another
explanation would in fact lead to questioning as to
whether Habermas' theory of the interests of
knowledge fully works in the ®eld of management
accounting. As noted above in Section 1, Haber-
mas attempted to explicate, with the help of de®n-
ing the three interests of knowledge, the alternative
modes of acceptable scienti®c practices, thereby
drawing a demarcating line between science and
non-science. If consulting research were regarded
as not ful®lling the criteria of any of the three
interests of knowledge by Habermas Ð given its
considerable signi®cance in management account-
ing literature Ð the situation would obviously
look suspicious from the Habermasian viewpoint.
Latour (1987) emphasises that the practice of
making science is based both on interests for gen-
erating new knowledge due to curiosity and will to
learn new things, and on self-interest. The latter
brings out the political and economic side of aca-
demic life: scholarly activities are also made for
career, prestige, and economic purposes (cf. Watts
& Zimmerman, 1979). Citations can be quite stra-
tegic by nature: for instance, only those prior stu-
dies and texts are cited which support the overall
direction of argument of the study at hand Ð and
this obviously applies to ABC studies as well as
accounting studies overall, too. Latour's view
appears to extend the idea of di€erent interests of
185
knowledge by Habermas, as the concept of Latour
appears to further stress how fundamentally pro-
blematic it is to demarcate between ``science'' and
``non-science''.
It is striking to compare the genres of consulting
and critical research from Latour's political view-
point (see also Silverman, 1985). Though the
scholarly styles of these two genres are, in general,
almost as far from each other as one can imagine,
they have one important common element: they
are both value-laden and committed. Consulting
research attempts to sell the positive features of
the (arguably) innovative constructions in a pro-
pagating, largely uncritical style. Critical research,
on the other hand, attempts to open the reader's
mind in order to relieve him/her from the sup-
pressing in¯uence of ``wrong'' ideologies. Both
agendas are highly political, and it can be viewed
in a sense as ironic that these two genres resemble
each other so much in this regard.
6. Conclusions
Our analysis, based on a detailed illustrative
examination of ABC research literature, tends to
suggest that the situation concerning the accumu-
lation of management accounting knowledge is
not even close to ideal. It is likely that the frag-
mented genre structure and asymmetric commu-
nication patterns encountered in ABC research
indicate a more general dispersion in the manage-
ment accounting academia overall. Thus the
situation, which has become realised in the ABC
research literature, would be a re¯ection of a deep-
rooted communication structure of the manage-
ment accounting academia. ABC is a good exam-
ple, since almost anybody can ®nd an angle of
interest in it, though basically the illustrative
example could be whatever. We predict that cor-
responding fragmented discussion circles and
asymmetrically operating communication patterns
will emerge in regard to any accounting innova-
tion that is either new or claimed to be such, also
in the near future.
Drawing on StegmuÈller (1969), we conclude that
the situation in ABC literature (and probably in
management accounting academia as a whole)
186 K. Lukka, M. Granlund / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 165±190
resembles as such a stage of becoming estranged,
in which the arguments of researchers representing
di€erent approaches do not typically meet each
other, this however depending on what relation-
ships between the various genres and sub-genres
we consider. This situation inherently results in
unfruitful development of knowledge, both in
terms of theory construction and practical con-
cerns. The fact that the fragmented situation does
not appear to raise notable concerns within the
management accounting academia Ð in fact,
almost the opposite seems to be true Ð is a wor-
rying sign in itself. The paths of knowledge devel-
opment in the various genres as well as in the
important sub-genres of basic research are largely
separate from each other. What can be done about
this situation, which obviously should be con-
sidered anomalous? Enhancing communication
between various research cultures is a long road
requiring changes in the frames of reference of
each party and, most of all, tolerance and open-
mindedness (Gadamer, 1975).
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the helpful com-
ments on the previous versions of the paper pro-
vided by Urban Ask, Marko JaÈrvenpaÈaÈ, Jan
Mouritsen, Vesa Partanen, Pekka Pihlanto,
Robert Scapens, Jani TaipaleenmaÈki, Tero-Seppo
Tuomela, the Management Accounting session
participants of the 20th Annual Congress of the
European Accounting Association, and the two
anonymous reviewers.
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